Tow bars or tow hitches are devices commonly used for connecting a towing vehicle or a tractor vehicle to a trailer. The trailer may thus be pulled by the towing vehicle. Tow hitches may be mounted on the rear part of towing vehicles, e.g. in the area of the rear bumper of a car or a truck, for hooking a trailer. Trailers may be for example caravans, boat trailers or box trailers.
Tow hitches generally have the form of a tow ball which allows inserting a tow ring attached to the trailer and thus establishing a mechanical connection between the towing vehicle and the trailer.
Tow hitches frequently also comprise or can be combined with a socket for electrically connecting the electrical system of the towing vehicle to the electrical system of the trailer. This electrical connection allows the transmission of electrical signals between the towing vehicle and the trailer. Such electrical sockets comprise electrical connectors connected to electrical cables which in turn are connected the electrical system of the vehicle. These electrical connectors may be mounted inside the socket and serve to electrically connect to a plug associated with the trailer. Known electrical connections are formed by e.g. a 7-pin or 13-pin socket in combination with a 7-pin or 13-pin plug of the trailer. Such an electrical connection may supply power from the towing vehicle to the trailer for activating operating lights or other indicators as for example left/right indicators, positioning lights or fog lights.
Such electrical sockets are typically mounted under the rear bumper or integrated in the rear part of a vehicle and therefore they are often not easily visible. It is especially difficult to see the electrical socket in the dark or with a poor illumination. Identifying the location of the socket can therefore be done by touching or by using a flashlight. Then, the user has to kneel down and touch the rear part of the vehicle or holding a flashlight or a torch with one hand, which makes it difficult to connect the plug of the trailer to the socket of the towing vehicle. Furthermore, the electrical contacts are not interchangeable, i.e. each pin of the plug has to be connected to the corresponding pin of the socket. The correct orientation of the plug with the socket thus needs to be found. As a result, users often must spend considerable time in a non-comfortable position trying to find the location of the socket and correctly orienting the plug and the socket.
The present disclosure provides examples of systems and methods that at least partially resolve some of the aforementioned disadvantages.